Police in 2 Bavaria Towns Block Neo-Nazis

Published: December 6, 1992

BONN, Dec. 5—
The police prevented neo-Nazi rallies in two Bavarian towns today as hundreds of Turkish residents and Germans turned out in several cities to protest months of racist violence in Germany.

The Bavarian police detained 15 people after preventing a rally in Passau and breaking up an extremist gathering in nearby Straubing that was disguised as a Christmas party.

In Berlin, a march against racism by 3,000 leftists and Turkish youths turned violent when police officers tried to grab masked anarchists out of the crowd. Protestors hurled stones and fired flares at police officers and several hundred police offciers with truncheons charged the crowds near eastern Berlin's Central Station train depot, witnesses said. At least three people in the crowds were wounded by stones. Some 2,000 police officers were on duty around the march.

Demonstrations led by Turks who are longtime residents of Germany ended peacefully in Bonn and the Bavarian city of Nuremberg. Turkish clubs joined by Germans marched in Nuremberg to protest against months of racist violence by neo-Nazi and other gangs against foreigners here. The police estimated the crowd at 2,000 but organizers said 5,000 had turned out.